Few would argue that Hannah Dakota Fanning, born in the southern United States on Feburary, 1994, is one of the most impressive young actresses on film today. Having worked with cinema legends such as Christopher Walken, Robert DeNiro, and Denzel Washington, Dakota had by the age of 10 amassed a résumé to be the source of envy of most professional actors thrice her age.

Dakota oozed talent very early on, and at 5 years old, she launched what would become an extremely promising career by starring in a Tide detergent commercial. Dakota would subsequently appear in small roles in TV series such as ER, Ally McBeal, CSI, and even animated cult-classic Family Guy, which fed her career until her theatrical debut in 2001 with her role as Lucy Diamond Dawson in I Am Sam.

After the opening of I Am Sam, Dakota accelerated from zero to famous seemingly overnight. Most claim Dakota held her own against her more experienced colleagues Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer, but I maintain that she consistently upstages them. In any case, Dakota's performance as Lucy garnered her a genuine respect for her innate abilities. And it got her noticed.

Dakota's career exploded, and she began cranking out movies at an average of 3 per year – an astounding rate for any actor, let alone for a little girl who still had to find time for her schooling. Dakota worked along side some noteworthy names: Charlize Theron in Trapped (2002); Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama (2002); director Steven Spielberg in Taken (2002); Brittany Murphy in Uptown Girls (2003); and Mike Myers in The Cat in the Hat (2003).

As impressive as Dakota is – and Dakota is impressive – she can do only so much with bad roles and bad writing. Although movies such as Uptown Girls and The Cat in the Hat, while technically not great can stand on certain merits, Hansel & Gretel is a tragic mistake that would do well to be erased from history. Or at least from Dakota's curriculum vitae.

Still, any serious Dakota fan owns Hansel & Gretel. I do. (Although I'm too embarrassed to tell my friends.)

In 2004, Dakota appeared with Denzel Washington in the adaptation of the A.J. Quinnell's novel Man on Fire. This movie could be her best performance since Taken, and although Dakota appears in only half the film, she is widely recognized for it. Dakota not only received top billing for this role, but she was also instrumental in the film's advertising campaign. This is a testimony to Dakota's popularity as a rising star.

Dakota has a proven versatility in all genres, but she truly shines in her dramatic roles. Child actors are usually good at being either cute and vulnerable, or wise beyond their years. Dakota has an uncanny ability to meld these qualities into a very believable character. Consider her roles as Lucy in I Am Sam, Allie in Taken, and Pita in Man on Fire: in all three cases, Dakota plays an extremely intelligent and mature girl who portrays singular wisdom, and yet in all three cases, her characters are credibly tender and compassionate, like any usual little girl. Dakota is anything but usual.

Since Man on Fire, Dakota has performed with Robert DeNiro in Hide and Seek, Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds, and Kurt Russell in Dreamer. Dakota consistently receives glowing praise from very prominent names. In fact, Dakota impressed Spielberg so much with her performance in Taken, that he specifically intended Dakota for her role as Rachel in his adaptation of the cult radio drama War of the Worlds. Says Spielberg, "Dakota Fanning was on my mind the second I decided to make War of the Worlds. I know no one her age that’s better than she is and more intuitive about human nature. She has a very wise old soul; it’s like she’s been around about seven or eight times."

Of her ability as an actor, I think Dylan Baker (Hide & Seek) said it best: "Woa, she's good!" And of Dakota's genuine loveliness, Mike Myers puts it even more eloquently: "I found myself just really wanting to gnaw on her head a little bit. Not break the skin but just sort of gnaw on it a bit, because she's so incredibly sweet."